27, The Brain of the Universe
He felt a pang of regret as he watched 5,000 stars vanish from his account. "I just spent 5,000 in one go, but I still need to pay more to restore my life potential," he lamented.
He was constantly starving, feeling a gnawing hunger in his stomach.
This hunger was unbearable torture.
But being hungry was better than being full, because that meant his life potential was being devoured by his cells.
"Stone, stone, you are my blessing and my curse." John caressed the milky white stone, afraid to enter Fetal Breath again.
The online shopping service was very efficient. In just an hour, his order arrived at his doorstep.
It was a tube of green liquid, thick and slimy, like some kind of bio-algae. He opened it and sniffed it lightly, and a pleasant aroma filled his nose.
It was the real deal.
Counterfeit drugs were almost extinct in modern human society. Anyone who made them would face severe consequences, either the death penalty or exile to other planets, where living conditions were worse than hell.
There was a planet specially used for exiling criminals, called "Raksha". It had a scorching temperature of 70 degrees during the day and a freezing temperature of minus 30 degrees at night. The environment was hostile and the vegetation was sparse.
This nutrient liquid had been specially processed with biotechnology and could be quickly absorbed by the body. However, people should not take too much of it, as it would lead to overnutrition.
But John did not have that problem.
He was so famished that he could not stand it. He smelled the fragrance and felt like eating the tube itself.
"I'm starving, I'm starving, drink fast!" John gulped down the liquid in the tube and immediately felt a warmth spreading from his lower abdomen.
A five-hundred-star liquid was really something else.
But his hunger was not completely satisfied, so he grabbed another tube, and then another, until he finished all ten tubes, and finally felt his hunger subside.
"It feels so good… I'm not hungry anymore, it feels so good…" John devoured all the 5,000 stars of nutrient liquid, feeling a warmth throughout his body, and he was about to drift into a deep sleep.
But he knew what he had to do. He quickly started to do Crystal Meditation, and entered the second stage of Deep Sleep, where his mind sparkled like a crystal.
He did not dare to hold the milky white stone, he could only rely on his spiritual realm to adjust his physical state.
In Deep Sleep, the milky white stone emitted a white light, and suddenly there was a disturbance, and he entered the dreamland again.
It seemed that the milky white stone had unlocked some mystery by the spiritual power of the "Phantom Fox"…
"A thousand years of dreaming, what year is this now?"
John fell asleep, entered Fetal Breath, in a daze, in a dream, and a voice rang out again.
He had heard this voice before. The first time was when he received the inheritance of the milky white stone.
But this time there was a new scene in the dream.
A voice said.
"In the vast universe, the stars are holy, and they are all dreams. If one can break through the great dream of the world and return to reality, that is called cultivation…".
In the dream, a figure appeared.
This person, standing in the dream, with a serene expression, spoke slowly and clearly, as if a teacher was instructing the students.
"Fortunate one, you have finally activated the practice of Heart Dream Sutra with your spirit. Now, I will teach you the practice of this supreme supreme supernatural power!"
This person, wearing an ancient robe, was a middle-aged man, not the white-clad corpse in the sewer, but someone else.
He did not waste any words, and began to demonstrate the practice.
He sat cross-legged in a steady posture, with one palm facing up, with a smile on his face, gentle and calm, with one hand hanging down naturally, touching the space.
John felt that after this person assumed this posture, he was fearless of everything, his heart was tranquil, and all kinds of horrors could not disturb his mind, the demons in his mind could not arise, and his wisdom suddenly blossomed.
Then, his hand gestures changed, unfolding like a lotus flower, sometimes clenched as fists, sometimes pointed like swords, sometimes made circles, sometimes palms pressed on the ground… It was ever-changing.
"Above my head is your cosmic brain, the harmony of meditation and movement… This is the basic skill of Heart Dream Sutra practice, the Spirit Emperor Mudra! Meditate on the cosmic brain to enhance your spiritual power."
Above the head of the middle-aged man, a vast starry sky emerged.
The starry sky was filled with stars, and it seemed that there were countless planets forming a nebula.
The shape of this nebula was actually a brain!
Countless planets formed a galaxy cluster. The shape of the galaxy cluster was not like the Milky Way galaxy, but a brain. The paths between the stars were like grooves in the brain, and each star was shining, like brain cells.
This was the meditation image.
This galaxy cluster was much bigger than the Milky Way!
"This brain galaxy…why have I never seen it before? There seems to be no galaxy in the universe that looks like a brain, but the planets are so realistic…"
John asked in his dream.
In his studies, humans had a lot of astronomical knowledge, but they had never seen galaxies like the brain. The Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, the Centaurus galaxy… none of the galaxies resembled the human brain.
But the middle-aged man who taught the practice did not answer, but repeated over and over again: "The brain is the soul, the soul is the mind, the mind is the spirit, and the spirit is the heart. Meditate on the brain of the universe, your brain is the brain of the universe!"
As the middle-aged man kept performing the various changes in his hand gestures, John could see that the universe around the brain of this star field was indeed dark. As soon as the "brain of the universe" stopped shining, darkness and terror would come.
He seemed to awaken.
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